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It may be easy to forget now, but in the 1980s, there
was an intense fascination in the U.S. with Japanese
management systems, especially with employee management.
The combination of lifetime employment,
internal advancement, and related practices produced
a high commitment system in Japan that was the envy
of U.S. employers and the topic of endless seminars
offering advice to firms in the U.S. A popular joke at
the time described how three businessmen, one French,
one American, and one Japanese, had been convicted
of something especially bad and were being granted their
last request before being executed. The French businessman
asked to hear the French national anthem. He heard
it and was taken out and shot. Then the Japanese businessman
was asked what he wanted. “I’d like to hear
one more time a lecture about the superiority of the
Japanese management system.” Then the American
jumped up and said, “Wait. Shoot me first.”